Jesse Russum

Jesse Daniel Russum (born September 1, 1874 in Bowman, Elbert County, Georgia; died c. 1944 in Birmingham) was the Jefferson County Coronor from 1920, and acting Sheriff of Jefferson County from August to December 1928.

Russum was one of seven children born to James and Mary Daniel Russum of Georgia. At age fifteen he took a job at a furniture-making factory and was involved in a serious accident which led to the amputation of both his legs below the knee. Despite the disability, Russum continued to work as a traveling salesman. He was successful in business and married the former Mary Della Tribble of Granada, Mississippi in 1904. They soon had four sons: Jesse Jr, George, Walter and Roy. The family of six relocated to Birmingham in 1907 and added a fifth son, Louis.

On January 7, 1917 Russum, then resident in West End, suffered new injuries when accused murderer Louis Walton killed himself by breaking a bottle of nitroglycerin in the lavatory of a Southern Railway car as it rolled through Woodlawn toward the Terminal Station. Though Russum recovered from his injuries, he lost his right ear.

In 1920 Russum was elected Coroner. He led the inquest into the death of Father James Coyle in 1921 and swore the warrant against Edward Stephenson for murder.

Rossum was a member of the "Board of Control" for the Birmingham Safety Council, established in 1925.

Russum died in 1944 and is buried at Elmwood Cemtery.

References

• "BPL Southern History Department taking trip back to Birmingham 1917" (January 20, 2017) The Birmingham News